Invigorating Environmental Accounting in the Public Sector through IPSAS and Governmental Policies

Abstract

The rate at which global warming is on the increase which is threatening human existence, calls for urgent attention of researchers. This study hereby focused on ways to improve environmental accountability in the public sector through IPSAS and governmental policies implementations. To achieve the objective of this study, both primary and secondary data were used. Data relating to climate change were retrieved from the National Centre for Environmental Information (2023). The study, which is conducted in Plateau state, has professional accountants of all the government ministries as its population. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Logit Binary Regression model were employed to test the hypotheses of the study. Results from the test revealed positive correlation between the Nigeria government policies and environmental accounting, however, this is found not to be significant at 5% level of significance. This means that poor government policies account for the possibility of about -1.950 decrease in human existence. The study also shows that proper accountability and investment in green infrastructural development can serve as mother insurer of human existence in our environment and with time curtail uninsurable risks like flood and other unforeseen epidemics. To invigorate environmental accounting in Nigeria, governmental policies should be carefully crafted to properly account for the environments including how many trees are cut down in a year, how many are replanted, how many green cars is registered in a year and how many green industries are registered in each year.